How different things could have been if Roy Hodgson had replaced Kevin Keegan as England boss 13 years ago

What if? Many fans backed Hodgson for the job years ago (Image: The FA)

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When the England manager’s job fell vacant after Kevin Keegan quit in the Wembley toilets 13 years ago, the paper I worked for conducted a readers’ poll, writes Dave Kidd in the Sunday People.

The public were asked whether they wanted Sven Goran Eriksson, Arsene Wenger or the rather left-field choice of Roy Hodgson, who was managing FC Copenhagen at the time.

Hodgson won hands-down and I had to ring and tell him. “Oh, thanks very much, how lovely,” he said, before disappearing from our national consciousness until he turned up at Fulham seven years later.

I recalled that poll while reading extracts from Eriksson’s new autobiography, which can be summarised thus: "The sex was good, the football not so good."

I wonder how different things might have been for England’s ‘Golden Generation’ had FA chief executive Adam Crozier – recently referred to by Sir Alex Ferguson as “the Scots lad from the post office, what’s his name?” – been as astute as the readers of a tabloid newspaper.

Actions speak louder than words

The Premier League’s title sponsors, Barclays, marked the start of the season with a soft-focus TV ad, paying tribute to dedicated football supporters.

It ended with the treacle-smothered line: “To follow is to love, to the millions of fans who make the Barclays Premier League what it is – we say ‘thank you’.”

And to members of the Toon Army hoping to attend Sunday’s midday kick-off at Tottenham – we say "catch the 06.50 from Newcastle Central or b******s to you".

The modern world

The modern tendency to turn former footballers into ‘club ambassadors’ was always likely to end in tears. And poor old Ledley King already seems to have opened more supermarkets than Nicholas Parsons. It’d have been more dignified to let the great man run a boozer or a corner shop, as ex-players did in the good old days.

Spoke too soon

Josh Cuthbert, a singer with the popular beat combo Union J, has given a remarkable interview, revealing how he enjoyed a major gambling session with Joe Hart.

Young Josh claims the England keeper withdrew £100,000 and handed him chips worth £2,500, after Manchester City’s derby defeat by United last December.

“It was literally the best night of my life,” he gushed. "We’ve had a bond since.”

Probably not so much of a bond after you gave that interview while Hart is at his lowest ebb, old son.

The Real McCoy

My one meeting with AP McCoy, during the successful campaign to have him named BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2010, was a contradictory experience.

The greatest ever jump jockey offered up probably the most chilling quote ever recorded on my dictaphone. McCoy, who rode his 4,000th winner this week, said: “It doesn’t matter how good you are, there’ll always be someone who comes along and wins more. I just want to have so many winners that when that day comes, I’ll be pushing up daisies rather than having to congratulate that someone. Some day someone will win more than me, but I don’t want to be there watching them. That’s what’s driving me, if anything.”

Rules are rules

A posh newspaper this week revealed how Britain’s Olympians had been officially warned they could lose lottery funding if they visited lap-dancing or strip clubs ‘regardless of gender’. When boxing gold-medallist Luke Campbell branded the rule ‘ridiculous’, UK Sport swiftly backtracked and our brave boys and girls – inspirations for a generation – were free again to pay to watch people get their knickers off. And so the need for a campaigning, fearless free press was underlined once more.

Food for thought

England's cricketers are being ridiculed Down Under because their style of play is supposedly too boring, while their leaked 82-page menu is too interesting. Alastair Cook’s men will be dining on piri piri breaded tofu and mungbean curry. The Aussies, as usual, will have to feast on hard cheese and sour grapes.